


Moment in Motion

by ItsProbablyLynn



Series: Remake Timeline Go Zoom [2]
Category: Biohazard | Resident Evil (Gameverse)
Genre: Gen, No Plot/Plotless, Post-Resident Evil CODE: Veronica, Welcome to the new grey area of the remake timeline gamers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28951065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsProbablyLynn/pseuds/ItsProbablyLynn
Summary: He wasn’t sure how he had been convinced to do this, but he did know that both he and Sherry were not thrilled with one another's presence.
Series: Remake Timeline Go Zoom [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2211177
Kudos: 3





	Moment in Motion

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written anything in like four years? I think this is gonna show that but even then this is purely my hc of Claire being the only one with a place to live post RE2/CV so the gang lives together at her small apartment. As far as the timeline goes I use the 'no government intervens' ending from RE2's Remake since that is the way for this to work but I kinda use a loose space of time between RE2 and CV since CV originally took place after Leon had started CIA stuff so this is post both games but I changed the amount of time that passes before CV to be a lot sooner. I only bring this up since I might right more from this but yeah.

He wasn’t sure how he had been convinced to do this, but he did know that both he and Sherry were not thrilled with one another's presence.

It had started simple enough, Jill had popped into his room and asked him to watch the jumpy twelve-year old for a little while she went out to get groceries for the apartment that didn’t have enough space for the five people it currently housed in the wake of Raccoon City’s unprecedented, well, _removal_ from the map of Colorado. Claire wouldn’t be back from her lecture until around two pm and Leon had run out to get a long list of parts for the various things around the apartment that needed to be fixed. And thus, Chris was the last one standing so to speak in line to deal with the blonde girl who seemed to avoid him at every turn. He wasn’t exactly sure _why_ he needed to keep an eye on her, from what Claire had told him she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself but then again Claire wasn’t the one who asked him to watch her. Maybe this was Jill’s attempt to get the two of them on friendly terms or maybe she was worried the girl would take off the moment she got the chance, either way, it was a misplaced gesture. 

“You’re staring.”, Sherry starts suddenly, calmly raising her eyes from her book, “And you’re thinking too loud.”, her gazing quickly flickers back down to the words and Chris isn’t sure why she spoke up in the first place.

“Well, uh,”, _Great start dipshit,_ “I was just trying to think of why Jill told me to watch you.”, he shifts in place by the doorframe to the living room, unsure if he can sit down without feeling like _he’s_ the stranger here. Chris had been in Claire’s apartment a handful of times before he was forced to move in when he got back from Europe, so it should have been a smooth transition but it just _wasn’t_ . Every waking moment felt like he was an intruder into a family’s private home which was almost true. Leon and Sherry had joined Claire as soon as they got across the Colorado state line, with Jill joining a few days later and leaving with Claire to Europe a week after that. He was the outlier in his sister’s home and it was _suffocating_. 

Chris finally made a move to sit down, in the well-loved recliner that Leon had brought over from his grandfather’s old place no less, and crossed his legs into it as Sherry flipped to the next page. The book she was reading also seemed to be well-loved as well as from Leon’s things, faded and frayed with barely shining fake gold lettering that read _And Then There Were None_ in a fancy font. In hindsight, maybe _this_ was Jill’s point, to make Chris sit down and stop thinking about a thousand different things for once and just _be_. 

So, he tried again.

  
“That’s a different book than the one you were reading yesterday.”, this made Sherry lift her head up fully, with wide-eyed confusion that _Chris_ of all people would know that, “I don’t think I could read at your pace these days. Hell, I can’t even remember the last book I read.”, Chris thinks he sees her smile a little but he isn’t great with her subtleties like he is with Claire and Jill’s. Sherry closes the book and sets it on the coffee table that _really_ needs to be cleaned off and gets to her feet with a small _humf_ . At first, he thinks he insulted her until she begins to pick up random pieces of trash that he hadn’t even noticed _under_ the coffee table.

“It’s noon,”, she says with a lit of certainty to her voice, “Gotta clean up before lunch.”, and so she does. Finding random granola bar wrappers, empty soda cans, and who _knows_ what else before Chris decides to help by clearing out the larger things; like the pizza box Claire knocked behind the couch last week, the numerous paper plates that dotted the coffee table, and the embarrassing number of hidden empty beer bottles that Chris is _sure_ have been there longer then they have been staying there. It is a comforting type of silence that they fall into, the only sound that of crinkling wrappers and clinking glass. Chris isn’t sure why Sherry out of all of them is the most level headed after everything that has happened to them, then he thinks about it for a bit and feels sick to his stomach before pushing the thoughts to the back of his mind. Both Jill and Claire had shown him the various papers they had taken from Umbrella but he still didn’t want to believe that people would do those things to _children,_ let alone their own flesh and blood. Even with all the documents that Claire had asked Sherry about, she was always quick to say that she was well treated and never harmed. It was such an obvious lie that she had been taught to say that it hurt to hear even when Chris had such little attachment to her. 

“What do you think Jill will bring home? I hope we get to have tater tots again.”, Sherry tosses a few more things into the trash and sighs, “Chris, can I ask you something a bit odd?”, Chris nods for her to keep going, “Is it wrong to be happy here? I mean in the way that I lost my parents and I am just....fine with that fact. Is that wrong?”.

Chris feels the sudden urge to tell her that she has the right to be happy, that her parents hurt her in so many ways, that her feeling fine is amazing with all the pain Umbrella has put her through, when suddenly it _clicks_ . She thinks the feeling is wrong _because_ she knows she’s allowed to be happy, because she knows that this is the best life for her to lead and yet she doesn’t think she has a right to those feelings. He feels sixteen all over again, trying to comfort a twelve-year-old Claire who hasn’t fully felt the weight of the loss of their parents and he _caves_. He’s gently tugging Sherry to him even though today is the first time they have ever talked at length with one another, even though he thinks the gesture is lost on her, and hugs her gently. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.”, her voice is so tiny and afraid of the idea as she lifts her arms around Chris and squeezes.

It’s a small step in a good direction, he thinks later when Jill is flipping a burger while Sherry holds the timer for the tater tots and Leon fixes the leaky sink, all three lost in a conversation about books Chris has never heard of nor cares to hear of. One day Sherry will understand the emotions she hasn’t quite found a name for and maybe one day Chris will ask her about the people she knew that loved her before Claire and Leon. 

Just maybe.


End file.
